Saturday, June 25, 2011

The slow death of once popular websites

Not too long ago I liked using Digg and MySpace. I used Digg to bookmark and share funny or interesting articles, videos and websites. And I used MySpace to connect with my favorite music artists.
Digg and other social bookmarking services have become less relevant because of Facebook and Twitter.
Facebook’s ubiquitous and easy-to-use Like and Share buttons are much more appealing than Digg’s labored submission process. And Twitter is a quicker and easier way to share weblinks.
The articles I submitted on Digg never got any traction with that community anyway. So I decided just to share those items on Facebook and Twitter instead.
Facebook also killed MySpace. Facebook kept innovating and making new features that turned its social networking website into an addictive pastime. That attracted a critical mass of users and caused MySpace users to abandon ship.
I don’t visit MySpace much anymore. A lot of the music acts have transferred over to Facebook. But not all of them. So I’m keeping my account for now.
But MySpace is looking more and more like a ghost town.
It seems likely that Digg and MySpace will join other failed websites and eventually the information they collected will be lost forever.

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About Me

I'm a technology business journalist who covers personal computers, consumer electronics and video games. This is my personal site. The views expressed here are solely my own. I enjoy movies, music, popular culture, electronic gadgets and the news media.
I can be reached at patseitz@gmail.com.